USN-311-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Publication date

11 July 2006

Overview

Linux kernel vulnerabilities


Details

A race condition was discovered in the do_add_counters() functions.
Processes which do not run with full root privileges, but have the
CAP_NET_ADMIN capability can exploit this to crash the machine or read
a random piece of kernel memory. In Ubuntu there are no packages that
are affected by this, so this can only be an issue for you if you use
third-party software that uses Linux capabilities. (CVE-2006-0039)

John Stultz discovered a faulty BUG_ON trigger in the handling of
POSIX timers. A local attacker could exploit this to trigger a kernel
oops and crash the machine. (CVE-2006-2445)

Dave Jones discovered that the PowerPC kernel did not perform certain
required access_ok() checks. A local user could exploit this to read
arbitrary kernel memory and crash the kernel on 64-bit systems, and
possibly read arbitrary kernel memory on 32-bit...

A race condition was discovered in the do_add_counters() functions.
Processes which do not run with full root privileges, but have the
CAP_NET_ADMIN capability can exploit this to crash the machine or read
a random piece of kernel memory. In Ubuntu there are no packages that
are affected by this, so this can only be an issue for you if you use
third-party software that uses Linux capabilities. (CVE-2006-0039)

John Stultz discovered a faulty BUG_ON trigger in the handling of
POSIX timers. A local attacker could exploit this to trigger a kernel
oops and crash the machine. (CVE-2006-2445)

Dave Jones discovered that the PowerPC kernel did not perform certain
required access_ok() checks. A local user could exploit this to read
arbitrary kernel memory and crash the kernel on 64-bit systems, and
possibly read arbitrary kernel memory on 32-bit systems.
(CVE-2006-2448)

A design flaw was discovered in the prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, ...) system
call, which allowed a local user to have core dumps created in a
directory he could not normally write to. This could be exploited to
drain available disk space on system partitions, or, under some
circumstances, to execute arbitrary code with full root privileges.
This flaw only affects Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. (CVE-2006-2451)

In addition, the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS update fixes a range of bugs.


Update instructions

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer to effect the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

ATTENTION: Due to an unavoidable ABI change the Ubuntu 6.06 kernel update has been given a new version number, which requires you to recompile and reinstall all third party kernel modules you might have installed. If you use linux-restricted-modules, you have to update that package as well to get modules which work with the new kernel version. Unless you manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages (linux-386, linux-powerpc, linux-amd64-generic), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform this as well.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
6.06 dapper linux-image-2.6.15-26-hppa32-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-hppa64 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-amd64-xeon –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-amd64-server –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-amd64-k8 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-hppa64-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-k7 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-server-bigiron –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-powerpc –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-mckinley-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-amd64-generic –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-server –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-mckinley –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-itanium-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-hppa32 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-686 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-itanium –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-powerpc-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-sparc64 –  2.6.15-26.44
linux-image-2.6.15-26-sparc64-smp –  2.6.15-26.44
5.10 breezy linux-image-2.6.12-10-powerpc-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-patch-ubuntu-2.6.12 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-hppa32 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-itanium-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-sparc64 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-hppa64-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-amd64-generic –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-iseries-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-k7-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-amd64-xeon –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-itanium –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-hppa32-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-powerpc –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-mckinley –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-sparc64-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-hppa64 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-amd64-k8-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-686 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-686-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-k7 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-mckinley-smp –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-386 –  2.6.12-10.35
linux-image-2.6.12-10-amd64-k8 –  2.6.12-10.35
5.04 hoary linux-patch-ubuntu-2.6.10 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-686 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-powerpc –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-itanium –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-power4-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-sparc64-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-hppa64-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-power3-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-hppa32-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-386 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-hppa32 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-sparc64 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-hppa64 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-amd64-xeon –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-itanium-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-powerpc-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-k7-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-power3 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-k7 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-power4 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-mckinley –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-686-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-amd64-k8-smp –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-amd64-generic –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-amd64-k8 –  2.6.10-34.21
linux-image-2.6.10-6-mckinley-smp –  2.6.10-34.21

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